If the imaging group at Olympus has its way, we might soon start to take pictures with omni-directional cameras. This will either lead to panoramic, life-altering photo perspectives, or it just might make pictures unnecessarily complicated and so dizzying as to be useless.

Yesterday, Olympus’ Future Creation Lab announced a new 360 CCD sensor/lens combo prototype that will allow photographers to take pictures of 360-degree views. These types of sensors have a curved symmetrical axis, and are about 1.18 inches in diameter.

The way they work is that as light passes through the curved lens when taking a picture, the internal reflection is captured in a wide-angle 360-degree limited view, allowing for a ‘full’ perspective of a single image. It’s assumed that the sensor in development will be able change the magnification and size of the viewfinder’s perspective. In a way, this is just a different approach to adjusting the depth of field.

The omni-directional system is also defined as axisymmetrical, but the sci-fi inclined will inevitably call it something else: Pictures that look like HAL-9000.

360-degree cameras and camcorders have been available before
(CycloVision’s ParaShot digicam attachment comes to mind), but only until recently have they started to become widely used. For example, companies like Immersive Media are using their geodesic-shaped cameras to take 360-degree video for clients such as Google’s Street View and
Red Bull. In addition, security and monitoring firms have understandably expressed interest: Raytheon’s Eagle-300 long-range
360-degree sensor is one of the leading new panoramic video products out there.